Never had it so good

Tom Sykes recounts a flight to remember, an epic morning chasing pinkfooted geese on the foreshore with his dad and brother

- Tom Sykes

We are fortunate to have a wide variety of wildfowl species on our local marshes. A frequent visitor that always gains the attention of the club members is the pink-footed goose. We have vast numbers of them. There is something magical about the distinctive ‘wink-wink’ call that gets the blood pumping.

Towards the end of last season, I was out scouting from a vantage point overlooking the marsh when I could see a mass of chocolate-brown and white shapes across the grassy marsh top. A look through the binoculars confirmed my hunch that it was a large congregation of pinkfeet. They were tucked away on a marsh that isn’t often shot by the members, making it the perfect place to set an ambush. I rang my brother ( Jack) and Dad (Keith) to let them know what I had seen and the plan that I intended to action the next day. Needless to say, they were happy to take up the offer to join me.

Early hours